When you can’t buy things, you learn to ask for things, and when you ask for things, you learn something about yourself and others.
Throughout last week, I have been asking my friends to make me aloo parathas.
It started last Sunday, when Kanishka and Avantika came over for lunch. My cooking range is limited to pasta and pulao so, if you eat at my place regularly, you might find the menu a little repetitive. Knowing that, I had made two different types of pasta — farfalle, bell peppers and spring onions in Mexican salsa sauce and casarecce and baby corn in cheese and wine sauce — and added mushrooms on toast as a side dish. However, I wasn’t really surprised when, five minutes into lunch, Avantika took a break from picking at her food and asked me —
Also filed in Conversations, Learning to Ask, Zero Dollar Dating
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Tagged Aloo Paratha, Avantika, Colaba, Friends, Gift, Gifting, Kala Ghoda, Kanishka, Merlot, Pasta
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I ate four McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wraps today.
No, I didn’t break down under the weight of my withdrawal symptoms and take a taxi to McDonald’s Colaba outlet and order myself four of them. In fact, I didn’t even have one of my usual craving attacks for them today.
My ex-girlfriend bought them for me, and I couldn’t not eat them.
For context, she’s the same ex-girlfriend who had asked me last year if I had thought about where I’ll keep her, before breaking up with me. As she pointed out to me after she read my post, it was only breakup number 7 out of our 171 breakups, and I was the one who initiated the last one.
Also filed in Conversations, Reality Show, Zero Dollar Dating
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Tagged Are You the One for Me, Barbara De Angelis, Books, Break-up, Conversations, Ex-Girlfriend, Gift, Gifting, Kanishka, McDonald's, Paneer Salsa Wraps, Relationships, Rules
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The intent of my off consumption experiment is to spend an year without buying anything that is not a necessity.
Even though I have written down rather elaborate rules for what is allowed and what isn’t during my year of being off consumption, I have deliberately avoided defining what is a necessity. This is because one of the most interesting aspects of the experiment for me is to discover what I think of as a necessity and how it changes with context.
Perhaps the only fool-proof approach to discover what I think of as a necessity is to record and study what I actually buy, and how it changes over time.
Also filed in Label Blindness, Shopping List, Shopping Style, What Is Necessity?
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Tagged Britannia Cheese Slices, Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste, Good Earth Muesli, Good Earth Toasted Oats, Label Blindness, Man's World magazine, Necessity, Shopping, Time Out magazine
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If you haven’t had your fill of McDonald’s from reading about my craving for McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap, you should have a look at Morgan Spurlock’s award-winning documentary film ‘Super Size Me’ (via Medea’s comment on my post).
Spurlock’s film follows a 30-day time period (in February 2003) during which he eats three meals a day from McDonald’s, Super Sizes his meal whenever offered, gives up exercise, gains 11 kg in body weight and experiences mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and possibly permanent liver damage.
Also filed in Book, Case Studies, Other Experiments
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Tagged Book, Book Deal, Controversy, Documentary, Experiment, Fast Food, McDonald's, McDonald's Paneer Salsa Wrap, Morgan Spurlock, Movie Deal, Super Size Me
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I have a confession to make.
I have an insatiable craving for McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap.
It hits me at the oddest times and places, more often than I would like to admit.
- X - X - X -
Sometimes, I’m running on Marine Drive and, suddenly, my stomach ties up into knots and all I can think of is a McDonald’s Paneer Salsa Wrap.
I have to stop, bend over, take a few deep breaths, look out over the sea towards Malabar Hills, wait for the craving to slowly subside.
Also filed in Reality Show, What Is Necessity?, Zero Dollar Dating
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Tagged Bombay, Business Meeting, Colaba, Dating, Indigo Deli, Malabar Hills, Marine Drive, McDonald's, McDonald's Paneer Salsa Wrap, Mumbai, Paneer Salsa Wrap, Pasta in Wine Sauce
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